"We sometimes call this flyover country," Barbara Whitney, an
astronomer from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said in a
statement. But she added that scientists are finding "all sorts
of new star formation in the lesser-known areas at the outer
edges of the galaxy."

Our solar system sits about two-thirds of the way out from the
spiral galaxy's center, in a region known as the Local
Arm. Astronomers tend to look inward when piecing together
images of the galaxy; the more barren regions in the Milky Way's
outer reaches have not been as extensively mapped.

Images from NASA's
Spitzer Space Telescope reveal cosmic nurseries full of young
stars blooming — some in clusters, some alone — in these faraway
regions, researchers say. An area near the canine constellation
Canis Major, for instance, has 30 or more young stars in early
phases of their lives sprouting jets of material, according to a
statement from NASA.

"With Spitzer, we can see out to the edge of the galaxy better
than before," Robert Benjamin of the University of Wisconsin said
in a statement. "We are hoping this will yield some new
surprises."

Benjamin and his team already discovered that older stars in the
red giant phase seem to disappear at the edge of the galaxy using
Spitzer images. The researchers are using that data to map the
warp in the galaxy's relatively flat disk, according to NASA
officials.

The new images were obtained as part of an initiative to chart
the celestial topography of our entire galaxy. The so-called
Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (Glimpse
360) project aims to make the map and a 360-degree view of the
Milky Way plane available online later this year.

Through the Milky Way
Project, citizen scientists are also poring over Glimpse
images to help astronomers find cosmic
bubbles. Scientists believe these bubbles are blown by
young, hot stars, and point to areas of star formation.

"This crowdsourcing approach really works," Charles Kerton of
Iowa State University at Ames, said in a NASA statement. "We are
examining more of the hierarchical bubbles identified by the
volunteers to understand the prevalence of triggered star
formation in our galaxy."

The research was presented Wednesday (June 5) at the meeting of
the American Astronomical Society in Indianapolis.